A Brief History of Rugby

In the mid 18th century, English public schools played a variety of football games that involved no actual rules. School boys would simply rush towards and mob the person with the ball. Many times this involved hundreds of students at a time, turning the games into giant piles of humanity only tangentially related to the mauls and rucks in modern rugby. Not surprisingly, the game often became a source of terrible injuries.





One variety of football played at a boarding academy called Rugby School allowed players to pick up the ball with their hands. However, taking the leather with you and sprinting to the goal was expressly forbidden. A student at the academy named William Web Elis famously first broke this rule in 1823.





In light of what he did, formal rules were codified and published shortly after. Up until then, any rule was simply a matter of verbal agreement between the teams before play began. The Rugby School was the first to release such a set of guidelines, thus their name was adopted for the sport as a whole.





Rugby initially had a reputation of being a rich man’s game because of its genesis in English boarding school. Since these institutions were generally only attended by the children of rich and powerful folk, this assumption was inevitable. Fortunately, this is no longer true today. With worldwide popularity came accessibility as well. Every day, countless rugby games are played all over the world no matter the athlete’s age, gender and even socio-economic class.





It’s one of the most popular sports in the western world outside of the United States. Many Latin-American and European nations have competitive professional leagues with their very own storied franchise teams and sports star millionaires. Australians and New Zealanders are also notable for their love of the sport. Their top League and Union teams draw thousands to the stadiums to watch the rugby games live.





While rugby is nowhere near the popularity of other pro sports in the States, the scene is still slowly but surely gaining community support and popularity. One way they’ve been able to succeed is through comprehensive grass roots and developmental programs. There are dozens of amateur men’s, women’s and youth teams eager to teach the public why they love the sport so much. They play numerous rugby games throughout the country in order to garner interest and attract new members.

Video Source: Youtube